DENR Davao embarks on reducing waste thru charcoal briquette production

DAVAO CITY, July 3 (PNA) -- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here is conducting a massive advocacy on reducing waste through its charcoal briquetting program that will conserve forest resources and at the same time provide alternative livelihood projects in the Davao Region.

Bonifacio A. Apura, DENR regional executive director, said they had introduced the technology to different sectors in the community, saying that it generated good results although a lot of work still has to be done.

With the volume of garbage that is being produced and using the technology, he said these waste products could be converted into charcoal of better quality.

He said the DENR charcoal is a solid fuel derived from carbonized leaves, twigs, stem and other farm and urban wastes and compacted into briquettes. The charcoal is easy to ignite and burns completely in at least 50 minutes.

He said this charcoal can lessen wood charcoal consumption of poultry farms, households and other domestic businesses. Every year these charcoal users consume about 5.4 metric cubic meters of fuel wood from the forest and woodlands or an equivalent of 1.35 million metric tons of charcoal. And for every ton of briquettes produced, about 88 trees are conserved.

Citing comparative analysis of the type of charcoal required per household, the DENR official said for a day's cooking of three meals would need 3.5 kilograms of ordinary charcoal, 2.01 kg of DENR non-carbonized charcoal and 1.69 kg of DENR carbonized charcoal.

Part of the plan is the setting up of P2 million funds for the acquisition of eight complete set of charcoal briquettor that will be deployed in the different provinces of Davao Region.

Apura however did not give details yet as to how this will be carried out.

But he said they are looking at the volume of waste for instance in Davao City for durian shells that during peak season just go to the garbage pile. These waste materials when carbonized and converted into charcoal could supply the demand of charcoal here.

He also said tons and tons of buko (young coconut) shells are also being thrown as waste and the excesses of bananas including the trunks could also be good sources and are abundant in Davao del Norte.

Meanwhile, Engr. Santiago R. Baconguis, chief science research specialist of DENR Manila, said that for a day's barbecue about two million trees are cut to supply the charcoal requirement.

"Using charcoal briquettes for barbecue will save us from cutting of trees and these happens in December where the demand of these kinds of food including lechon manok (roasted chicken) is high," he said.

He admitted that although charcoal briquette is now produced in the Philippines, these products are not yet patronize domestically even as he said that big groceries are already selling the product.

The supply, he said, is not that big locally because most of our producers export their products to international market in Korea, Japan, Brunei, US, Europe and Saudi Arabia.

In the export market, it is sold equivalent to P40 to P50 per kilo while locally it is sold at P25 per kilo.

Baconguis also said that there are eight exporters in Davao for the charcoal briquette.

On the other hand, a non-government organization in General Santos City has adopted the technology where it produces charcoal briquette and supply the product to the local market.